Briarcliff Road reopens after gas leak

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Crews spent more than nine hours trying to cap a gas leak on a busy road in DeKalb County before it reopened.

The leak was on Briarcliff Road near North Druid Hills Road. It all started when a construction crew working on widening a section of Briarcliff Road hit the line with a back hoe around 7 p.m. Wednesday. The incident shut down about a quarter-mile of the road, but it reopened sometime before 9:45 a.m. the next day.

Gas was spewing up from the ground with so much force that it was throwing up mud on Wednesday night. Then, the gas started shooting up almost 30 feet in the air. That's when firefighters put their hoses on it.

"I think it's a little scary. I didn't want to come this close, but it seems like they have it under control and I hope they know what they're doing," resident Bonnie Benson told Channel 2 Action News.

Hazmat crews shut down a nearby Chick-Fil-A restaurant as they monitored the explosive levels of the leak.